My favorite local theater does lots of puppetry and Commedia dell'Arte style productions. Almost every season they host
workshops for puppet making. Perhaps the Maui Academy of Performing Arts could contact the staff at
Hip Pocket Theatre for advice or assistance in getting back into production.
Puppet theater is amazing stuff. A skilled puppet master can operate two, sometimes three, relatively simple puppets simultaneously. Even the local ballet company occasionally uses puppets handled by dancers. Combined with suspension of disbelief from a cooperative audience, the intricate performances can often be quite persuasive. Even if you can't quite ignore the puppet masters themselves, you can still be entertained and amused by their deft manipulations.
Some puppets are so complex that two or more puppet masters are needed to operate them convincingly. It can be amusing when one of the handlers is inexperience or out of sync with the other, putting on a less than convincing performance that betrays the illusion. But it's all in good fun, as long as Punch isn't using any real weapons on Judy.
It's unfortunate that there is nothing comparable on the internet, where puppet masters rarely get the attention they deserve.
"Everything suddenly begins to seem so real..."
One of my favorite photos from a Hip Pocket Theatre rehearsal for
Alice In Wonderland, for which director Lake Simons, the young lady in the foreground, was recognized for Outstanding Achievement in Design by the
Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum.
I think you can see the head of the March Hare in the back, toward the right, held aloft over the fellow in the black t-shirt and bandanna. The hare seems to have the attention of almost everyone onstage. It really was a fantastic performance.
Topic: That "other" pirate radio site almost depopulated!!! (Read 2184 times)
